1960-1962 Plymouth Valiant

1961 Valiant

While the 1961 Valiant looked pretty much like its
predecessor, it was, psychologically, an entirely different car. For one thing,
it was no longer alone in the Chrys­ler family. Dodge dealers were given a
variant to sell as well.

With its pert circular taillights and raffish 1960
Pontiac-type grille, the new Lancer was poised to attract customers who might
otherwise have bought Valiants. More importantly, the Valiant was no longer a
separate make. It was now a Plymouth Valiant, and was identified as such on
decklids and tailgates. (Valiant even lost its unique corporate model code.)

Much of this downgrading had to do with the precarious
position of the Plymouth brand, which was struggling against fast-rising rivals
to maintain its cherished third place in sales. At the end of the 1960 model year,
Plymouth was embarrassed to find itself bested by not only
Rambler and Pontiac, but also by Dodge's popular new Dart. If Valiant's nearly
200,000 units had been included in the Plymouth totals, the beleaguered marque
might have retained third place.

Additionally, promoting the Valiant as a separate brand
flew in the face of confused customers who needed to "hook" the
plethora of new compact-car nameplates to familiar brands. Remember that at the
time Chrysler was still attempting -- with limited success -- to convince a
dubious public that the haughty Imperial was not a Chrysler.

Finally, Chrysler Corporation was itself in turmoil
during much of 1960 and 1961, beset with upper-management conflict-of-interest
scandals, the demise of the DeSoto brand, and three regime
changes. Grandiose plans to market the Valiant as a separate make crumbled as
the corporation fought for survival while realigning its dealer network
following the "stranding" of its 1649 DeSoto-Plymouth dealers.

Thus, in 1961, instead of being a
"prime-market" car, the Valiant became one of the pack. Perhaps this
was inev­itable, given the explosion of compact and larger "senior
compact" nameplates. New entries in 1961 included the Pontiac Tempest,
Oldsmobile F-85, Buick Special, and Dodge Lancer, which
were added to the Corvair, Falcon, Comet, Rambler American,
Studebaker Lark, and now Plymouth Valiant.

Appearance changes for 1961 were minimal, but generally
not for the better. Black paint was added to the grille texture for a different
"big squares" look, the black and bright headlamp bezels reappeared,
and a trio of bright louvers were added above the taillights.

V-200s were given new side trim including a shortened bodyside molding
with a fluted and flared "stone guard" on the rear door, and a bright
molding on the front upper-body "blade." Rather than complementing
each other, the two side-trim treatments competed for attention, resulting in a
busy appearance.

V-200 interiors, however, benefited from extending the vinyl
door bolsters up to the belt. The new, optional, pillow-type dashboard crash
pad was shared with Lancer.

Two new two-door body styles were added, a V-100 sedan
and a V-200 hardtop. Both used the basic sedan roof stamping so that windshield
and backlight were carried over. This minimalist approach was acceptable for
the proletarian two-door sedan.

However, while dispensing with the V-100's
B-pillar, the V-200 hardtop retained a fixed portion of the rear quarter
window, necessary since a full-length window would have been too long to be
lowered fully into the body. The fixed glass certainly marred the hard­top look
and resulted in a car that had none of the sporty élan of the Cor­vair Monza
coupe.

A more stylish solution mocked up in Feb­ruary 1959
featured a reverse C-pillar, large wraparound backlight, and sloping roofline, but
the idea was stillborn. Tooling monies that might have facilitated the racier
roof were instead diverted to the necessity of making the new Lan­cer different
from the Valiant.

A taxi package was made available in two equipment
levels, and in the spring, buyers in four southern states could buy a
"Dixie Special" Valiant sedan painted Confederate Gray metallic and
highlighted with a symbol on the door commemorating the War Between the States.
Why Valiant was chosen for this tribute is unknown.

Despite the fact that nearly 18 percent of 1960 Valiant
wagons were three-seat models, the third seat became an extra-cost option in 1961.
Consequently, installations came to a mere 593 units. The second seat, however,
was made 4.5 inches wider to improve comfort.

By mid 1961, customers could specify a new factory engine
option -- an aluminum version of the cast-iron 225-cid "RG" Slant Six
previously available only on the full-size Plymouth and Dodge Dart. Made at
Chrysler's Kokomo, Indi­ana, plant with an enormous 2,000-ton diecasting
machine, the aluminum block was 76 pounds lighter than the cast-iron version. A
cast-iron cylinder head was used as the best solution for durability and
manufacturing costs.

Also to lower costs, a cast-iron intake manifold replaced
the aluminum design used in 1960. This was true of the smaller-displacement 1961
Slant Six as well, where the compression ratio was lowered to 8.2:1 to better
reflect existing regular-fuel octane ratings. The 225-cube engine, which
featured a one-inch-longer stroke than the 170, developed 145 bhp.

Lancer buyers got first crack at the aluminum Slant Six.
Consequently, during 1961, 11,881 Lancers and 6,612 Valiants were built with the
lightweight engine, which continued as an option into the early part of the
1963 model year. During this period, another 36,000 or so engines were built
before Chrysler ended the program in November 1962, citing low demand, high
costs, and unspecified manufacturing problems.

According to Weertman, who
worked on the project, "The cost of the aluminum block was higher than
anticipated. There was more processing involved, and because of aluminum's
greater porosity, scrap rates were higher with the aluminum blocks versus cast
iron. Also, switching back and forth at Trenton Engine from machining aluminum
to machining cast-iron blocks was too costly." This would be Chrysler's
last aluminum-block en­gine until the Viper V-10 in the early 1990s.

Even though Chrysler's Los Angeles assembly plant was
added to the list of pro­duction points, Valiant assemblies fell to 143,078 in
1961, a decline of more than 51,000 units. Some of the drop might be attributed
to the closing of many DeSoto-Plymouth agencies in the months following
DeSoto's departure.

But add the 74,776 Lancers to the total and production of
"Valiant-type" cars showed an ample increase to 217,854 cars.
Clearly, the Lancer cannibalized Valiant sales in the same way Dart did to
Plymouth a year earlier, but obviously Chrysler felt it was more important that
Dodge dealers have a compact to sell. Both were outdistanced by the 282,000
Corvair and 474,000 Falcon passenger cars.

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